Water World

We spent a couple of weeks in Brittany with Benedicte's family. It's a yearly thing, every year Benedicte's parents rent a house and invite the entire clan. Depending on how far the net is cast this can be up to 11,000 people... or at least it seems that way sometimes.

I just try to help out as much as possible and what seems to help the most is if I stay the hell out of the way. It's a machine. A french machine but still... a machine. So I try to grab Zoe and do things. Go fishing. Go hiking. Go to the cafe and draw. But this year I had the wise idea to bring... wet suits. OK lots of slack from Benedicte... "When I was a kid we didn't have wet suits!" Well neither did I and let me tell you I was friggin' cold. I always seemed to be cold. Rubber boots and cotton socks during a snow storm. Wet mittens that made better sponges than insulators. Brrrrr.... So I got Zoe this cute pink shorty. Mask, fins, suit... all pink and all for like 40 bucks.

Zoe was one of those water babies. You know like on the Nirvana album cover. It always made sense to me, we spend the 1st 9 months underwater... why not just toss them in the pool on their second day out of the womb. Well it wasn't exactly day 2 but she was in the pool at 6 weeks taking lessons but sadly in her case it didn't work. Although she has always loved the water she has also been very afraid of it. Later on through her school they offered more swimming classes... after weeks of trying to get her jump in they put her in the shallow end and told to stick with the 3 year olds. Luckily she didn't mind.

But I am proud to announce that this summer through the Robin Willis reluctant swimmer program she is now a fish. She would spend hours paddling around looking at fishies and crabs and well, a lot of rocks. The slight buoyancy of the wet suit seem to help her and the mask and snorkel replaced the fear of down there with fascination.

So obviously I too was out there with her. While floating amidst the flotsam and jetsam I revisited the idea that our species biggest mistake was crawling out of the sea. I feel completely free when I am underwater. It seems as natural as breathing. I do not desire anything. No cars, big screens... no career ambitions... Time does not exist. Neither does gravity. Neither do problems. I am one with the waves. I have always thought that I was really an otter who oddly wound up as a television commercial director. I think Zoe is one too.